Saturday, November 1, 2014

The quote of the day is the interview with Chief Justice Warren Burger.

CONVERSATION: CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN BURGER - Dec. 16, 1991 From MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour
MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Some scholars have argued that the Bill of Rights is
still flawed, that some of its provisions need reconsidering, that it's
over rated. How do you respond to that?

JUSTICE BURGER: That is as with anything in this life, it could be better here or there. MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Like where, for example?
JUSTICE BURGER: Well, that's a harder one to answer. If I were writing
the Bill of Rights now there wouldn't be any such thing as the Second
Amendment. MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Which says. JUSTICE BURGER:
That says a well regulated militia being necessary for the defense of
the state, people's rights to bear arms. This has been the subject of
one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word "fraud," on the
American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my
lifetime. Now just look at those words. There are only three lines to
that amendment. A well regulated militia -- if the militia, which was
going to be the state army, was going to be well regulated, why
shouldn't 16 and 17 and 18 or any other age persons be regulated in the
use of arms the way an automobile is regulated? It's got to be
registered, that you can't just deal with it at will. Someone asked me
recently if I was for or against a bill that was pending in Congress
calling for five days' waiting period. And I said, yes, I'm very much
against it, it should be thirty days' waiting period so they find out
why this person needs a handgun or a machine gun. MS.
HUNTER-GAULT: What about the opinion polls, finally, that suggest that
the Bill of Rights would not be popularly supported if it were up for
ratification today? JUSTICE BURGER: I don't believe that at all. I
don't believe that at all. In fact, I think it's a little bit
ridiculous. Any poll can be manipulated by how the question is asked and
if you ask some active member of the NRA if the Second Amendment should
be changed, of course, he or she would go up in the air. MS. HUNTER-GAULT: That's the National Rifle Association.
JUSTICE BURGER: Yes. I don't want to get sued for slander, but I repeat
that they have misled the American people and they, I regret to say,
they have had far too much influence on the Congress of the United
States than as a citizen I would like to see -- and I am a gun man. I
have guns. I've been a hunter ever since I was a boy.

Since I can catch that this is (a very good) parody of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin (amongst other French cultural references lately). And, this seems appropriate given that 'Allo 'Allo was a soft porn parody of Secret Army (I'll confess that I watched episodes of 'Allo Allo after watching Secret Army since SA is pretty heavy stuff).

Anyway, here is the original, which sounds like the soundtrack to a porn film (and if you are at all familiar with Serge Gainsbourg, you know he did some seriously weird shit).

With that, I'll leave you to enjoy steak frites and a glass of vin rouge.

A Philadelphia father was arraigned Monday for voluntary manslaughter charges that he faces after fatally shooting a man he found in his daughter’s bedroom last month.

Charles Jordan, 41, maintains his innocence and said he only shot at 32-year-old Marc Carrion because he felt threatened and believed Carrion had broken into his home.

On Sept. 15, around 11:30 p.m., Jordan grabbed his handgun when he heard unfamiliar noises coming from the bedroom of his daughter, Brenda. Jordan told authorities that after he entered her bedroom, he noticed something out of place about Brenda’s window before he found Carrion crouched down in a corner next to the window, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Jordan said he believed that Carrion had broken into the home through his daughter’s window, but would later discover that his daughter had invited Carrion, whom she had known for about a month, up to the second-floor apartment.

Wasn't there a case like this last year in which the reactionary dad was not charged? Or is this just one of those lengthy investigations that results in charges?

Local news reportsPolice have arrested a woman for the fatal shooting of her boyfriend in Kirby Friday morning.

Raquel Ramos, 43, is being charged with manslaughter. Officials with Kirby Police say the woman shot and killed her boyfriend when he apparently tried to show her how to fire a shotgun.

Police say the woman's boyfriend arrived at the home with a shotgun and began showing her how it worked. That's when he was hit in the chest and killed. The woman's son was also inside the home at the time of the shooting, and was not hurt.

Local news reportsOther measures to take effect include one to expand gun rights, making it lawful for a person who is licensed to carry a handgun under the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act to store it out of view in a locked vehicle when the vehicle is left unattended on school property.

The measure's author, Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said the bill protects the constitutional rights of people with permits who were previously prohibited from driving onto school property if they were carrying a weapon.

"It's a matter of a handgun-license owner, even a teacher, being able to exercise their Second Amendment right, even if they're going to work," Kern said.

Another firearms-related measure will allow current or former district attorneys to carry firearms for personal protection - even after leaving office - if they have completed a handgun qualification course developed by the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training.

A western Pennsylvania coroner is auctioning off about 100 guns used in suicides and accidental shooting deaths. Coroner Ken Bacha says the Nov. 8 surplus weapons sale is Westmoreland County government's first since his father was coroner in the 1980s.
He says state law requires local governments sell off unclaimed property. Proceeds will help fund county government. Bacha's office took possession of the guns during death investigations. Family members had a year to get them back before they became county property. Some of the weapons have been in the county's hands for decades.

Eric M. Frein, the fugitive accused of killing one state trooper and seriously wounding another in an ambush, was captured Thursday and brought back to the barracks near Scranton, Pa., where his seven-week flight from the law began. Mr. Frein surrendered to federal marshals who found him hiding out in an abandoned airport in the Poconos Mountains, ending an intense manhunt that began Sept. 12, officials said in a news conference late Thursday. The marshals turned him over to the Pennsylvania State Police, who placed him in the slain trooper’s handcuffs and patrol car. “Frein has been stripped of his guns, his bombs and his freedom,” said Sam Rabadi, the special agent in charge of the Philadelphia field office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “This community can now rest. He now has to answer for his violent actions.”

In January 2006 Snoop and his bodyguard McKinley Lee were found not guilty on the murder charges but the jury remained deadlocked on the manslaughter charge. Snoop would deal with this legal matters for almost 3 years after the initial not guilty verdict.

Snoop and McKinley Lee were represented by Johnnie Cochran, Morrissey, David Kenner of the Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. law firm.

Ever notice how the people who try to persuade us that the Second Amendment has nothing to do with a well-regulated militia are usually the same people who want to persuade us that the US is a Christian Nation?

Open carry advocates are upset that they get "sussed" by the cops. But, here is what the cops have to say about this:

Lt. Cook points out it's against the law to knowingly file a false
police report. But he said the greater fear is that citizens fail to
report armed individuals, either because they feel intimidated or
because they've become desensitized to guns on the streets.

Let's face it, there is a good point to calling the cops if someone sees someone who looks like they shouldn't be walking around with a firearm if it was true that Jared Loughner was openly carrying prior to the Tucson shooting.

Especially if the person walking around has the type of weapon that could wipe out a lot of people.

So, yeah, those callers were not technically reporting something illegal: just something suspicious. And they probably prevented a mass shooting.

The problem is that the open carry
movement is about baiting the cops and those who don't feel comfortable
seeing people walk around in public with a lot of firepower. That's a
recipe for disaster.

Seriously, are you people so stupid that you would enable a
mass shooter? You give him/her the firepower--would you also give him/her
the opportunity?

So, if you clowns want to walk around carrying weapons in public--live with the consequences of your actions.

But, I have to admit I am happy that the open carry movement exists since they are so far out on the fringe of gunloonery and full of irresponsible people that they are the best thing to happen for our side. Eventually, they will piss off most people with their antics.

While playing around with guns, a 17-year-old boy allegedly shot a 14-year-old boy on Wednesday, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

The 14-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The teen told deputies he and the 14-year-old were "playing around" with guns.

The older teen "stated the victim was pointing a .20 gauge shotgun at him" at which time the older teen "picked up a 9mm handgun, pointed it at the victim and accidentally fired the gun," the Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

The 17-year-old was charged with manslaughter and transported to the Marion County Juvenile Detention Facility.

A Seattle man fatally shot his adult daughter and teenage granddaughter before turning the gun on himself late Monday, police said.

Police said they received a call for help from a 10-year-old boy, who told them his grandfather had waved a handgun at the two victims before shooting them. The boy said his grandfather then turned the gun on himself.

None of the victims were identified, but authorities said the gunman was in his 60s.

The boy who reported the shooting was unharmed, but "shaken up," Assistant Police Chief Nick Metz told reporters at the scene. The child was placed in the care of his extended family. There did not appear to be any other people in the house, Metz said.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said the shooting appeared to be "a family tragedy," before adding that there was no danger to the surrounding neighborhood.

There may be no danger to the neighborhood, but you know what is in jeopardy? - the right to sell guns without a background check. This incident combined with the recent headline-grabbing school shootings should sway any fence-sitters when they go to the polls shortly.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The fun thing about gun loons is that they are super examples of Poe's Law (without a clear indication of the author's intent, it is difficult or impossible to tell the difference between an expression of sincere extremism and a parody of extremism.)

And when you think they couldn't come up with something more bizarre, they top themselves.

I don't hear enough from Richard Martinez. His son Christopher was among the six college students murdered in Isla Vista, California. He has gone on the offensive rather than be silent in his grief.

Unlike a lot of other people, Mr. Martinez has been public in his outrage about the inaction to address the out of control situation that is the US gun problem. His first public statement was a blistering and emotional indictment of
“craven” politicians who refuse to act on even moderate gun reform.

Take a look in the mirror and ask yourself--"Do you really believe that you are safe from being touched by gun violence?"

Be honest with yourself. Do you really think that your kid is safe when you have a gun in the house?

Anyway, Richard Martinez says “For me to live with this and honor his memory, I will continue to go
anywhere and talk to anybody for as long as they want and are willing to
listen to me about this problem. I’m not going to shut up.”

A Montana man is facing up to 20 years in prison after he shot and killed a 3-year-old boy in a game of “gun tag.”

Lonato Moran-Allen, 3, was playing with a toy gun Wednesday night when he pretended to shoot 26-year-old Galen Hawk. Hawk told investigators he didn’t know his .380 handgun was loaded when he picked it up and returned a shot, fatally striking the boy. He attempted to do CPR on the boy, but he later died at a nearby hospital

Houston police are investigating the apparent accidental shooting of a man who attempted to grab a gun from a toddler in south Houston.

Patrick Sanders, 20, of Houston, was sleeping on the couch in the living room of the apartment when a gun in his pants pocket fell out and onto the floor, police said. As Sanders woke up, a three-year-old boy picked up the gun. Police said Sanders saw the child with the gun and as he tried to grab it from the boy the gun went off and Sanders was shot in the face.

The child was not injured. Sanders was transported to Ben Taub General Hospital where he remained Monday in critical condition.

Monday, October 27, 2014

By the way, although amnesty--the creation of tens of millions of overwhelmingly "progressive" Democrat voters--would be a home run for the Democrats (and gun ban zealots), there's another strategy (which would combine well with the amnesty approach) that I'm surprised is not really being pursued.

Gunloons, like Kurt, like to speak about "rights."

The "right" of anyone (well, except for those non-white folks) to carry any kind of gun anywhere they want. And Kurt has called gun ownership "a fundamental human right."

Yet, Kurt and other extremist rightwingers oppose amnesty--permitting undocumented immigrants who have lived and worked in the US for many years--the right to citizenship. Many of these undocumented immigrants have children born in this country and who know no other country than the US.

The fact is the vast majority of these undocumented immigrants come from Mexico and Central America. They come to the US for a better life and/or to escape persecution in their country. But--they're non-white, so Kurt says they have to go. I'm fairly certain Kurt will say it's not about race but because they'd just wind voting for Dems but that explanation doesn't hold water. After all, which party has championed the right of immigrants from Cuba to have automatic US citizenship for merely getting into US territorial waters? Could not the GOP be the champions of amnesty and therefore curry favor in an ever-increasing demographic? Nope, the GOP is too far in bed with the white separatist movement. The GOP and Kurt wouldn't even consider amnesty an issue if we were talking about undocumented immigrants from Canada or Germany.

Both are not really quotations from Jefferson, while the right's version is obviously false. Let's face it, Jefferson was a slave owner: talk about taking from people who work for a living without proper compensation!

The exact quotation used by the Left also has not been found in the writings of Thomas Jefferson. It may be a mistaken amalgamation of the author's comments in the above 1994 reference with a real Jefferson quotation. Jefferson wrote in 1825 to William Branch Giles of "vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of ’76 now look to a single and splendid government of an Aristocracy, founded on banking institutions and monied in corporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry."

This gets to what exactly were the real reasons for the American War for Independence? If it was based upon free trade and an end to monopolies (i.e. The British East India Company), then the legacy would be one which is more left leaning than the current right wing appropriation of the "Tea Party" title would have us believe.

The problem with the period of the War of Independence is that it has become part of the US National myth. It is romanticised and not seen in its proper historical context. Instead of creating a utopia, it created anarchy and economic ruin which was only fixed by the adoption of the Constitution.

People need to reassess that period of Early American history in a new light. I would hope that it would help extinguish the insurrectionist nonsense that has become common which none of the founders would tolerate.

A Kingsland woman is recovering from what authorities call a freak accident when a spent shell casing lodged in her face at a firing range near the Okefenokee Swamp in south Georgia.

The woman was flown by helicopter from Waycross to a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, after the Wednesday mishap.

Ware County Sheriff Randy Royal says Joseph Borkowski of Kingsland was firing at targets at the Dixon Memorial State Forest firing range when he heard screaming, then saw his wife, Rhiannon, bleeding heavily from her face.

Royal says the semi-automatic .308-caliber rifle he was firing had ejected an empty shell casing, striking his wife in the cheek.

Royal tells The Florida Times-Union that Rhiannon Borkowski underwent surgery but no other information on her condition was available.

"The problem with this new quote is that it borders on anti-democratic. I don’t care how many times you praise the Founding Fathers or talk about your love of the Constitution, if you think that the way to resolve policy differences or personal arguments with the government is not just by trying to get different people elected or waging a campaign to change the laws or filing suits in court, but through the use of violence against the government, you have announced that you have no commitment to democracy. In the American system, we don’t say that if the government enacts policies we don’t like, we’ll start killing people. It’s not clear that Ernst meant this, but it’s fair to ask her to explain what she did mean."

Anyway, The Pew Charitable Trust (more billionaires) came up with a study on political polarisation in the US. It's a very involved study on the topic as the video below points out, getting into many different aspects of polarisation.

The part which interests me the most is the media, even that is rather involved. The most consistent Media source for the right is Fox News, with about 47% of those identified as conservative listing that as their trusted source of their news. Liberals, tend to have many different news sources with CNN (15%), NPR (13%), MSNBC (12%) and the New York Times (10%) all ranking near the top of the list.

The important part of all this:

The public’s understanding of government and politics is also influenced by the extent to which they trust – or distrust – the
information they hear from various news sources. In other words – how
open people are to the political news and information put forth by
various outlets, including those they do not actively consume.

In general, the survey finds that there is more trust than distrust
of news sources. But there are substantial differences in trust and
distrust across the ideological spectrum.

People who took this poll were asked if they had heard of 36 different news sources. If they had heard of the source, they were then asked to what level they trusted the accuracy of that source. Those with consistently liberal political values had heard
of more sources than any other ideological group – on average, about 26
out of the 36 – and trust about twice as many as they distrust (10.5
vs. 4.8). Respondents with mostly liberal views or with about
an equal mix of conservative and liberal views have heard of fewer
sources, on average, but still trust more sources than they distrust.

Where I fit in here:

One example is the Economist. Only 34% of panelists have heard of the
outlet, but within that group there is far more trust (12%) than
distrust (2%), when it comes to news about government and politics. The
BBC is recognized by a greater portion of respondents (76%), but is
similarly more trusted (36%) than distrusted (7%).

Oddly, they left out the Guardian (even though it was one of the choices in the poll). Anyway.

What really came out here was that those with consistently liberal views had more sources for information than those on the right.

"Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is
impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't
mistake for the real thing."

In other words, No matter how bizzare, outrageous, or just plain
idiotic a parody of a Fundamentalist may seem, there will always be
someone who cannot tell that it is a parody, having seen similar REAL
ideas from real religious/political Fundamentalists.

Keep up the good work! This is better than anything Ladd Everett can come up with!

More than two decades of activism over Pennsylvania's barbaric
tradition of pigeon shoots did not end with a victory dance last Monday.

It
ended with House Bill 1750, which last week won 36-12 approval in the
state Senate, safely buried in the House Rules Committee, where it will
expire without a vote. Until at least the Legislature's next session, it
will be legal to raise dogs and cats for human consumption, to "hunt"
tethered animals and to blast pigeons fired into the air for the
shooting enjoyment of fat-bottomed Elmer Fudds.

The
House's timidity represents a victory for the National Rifle
Association, which for years has been advancing the preposterous notion
that banning the practice of shooting captive animals in rings or tied
to hay bales is the first step on a slippery slope toward banning all
hunting.

Lindsey Graham can barely get ISIS out of his mouth before blowing his shpadoinkle and screeching "we may all get killed!" Sen.
Ron Johnson, R-Wis., did him one better, imagining Ebola-infected
members of ISIS entering the United States as human WMDS. Then there's
former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who while remodeling himself
after the Patriots as a generic New England product, has become
convinced that kids with Ebola are about to come rushing across the
southern border like Pancho Villa.

Meanwhile, returning from
la-la land to our regularly scheduled program, 86 people died in the
United States today from gunfire. Just like the day before. Much like
the 86 who will die tomorrow. Nobody died from Ebola, or ISIS or
Honduran children, unless it was in a goofball-induced, Louie Gohmert
fever dream. Funny, then, that you won't hear these very same
tricorne-wearing town criers utter a word about this preventable
sickness that is genuinely killing Americans.

This is only made that much worse by the grim statistics we augmented on Friday. We had our 87th—yes 87th—school shooting since Newtown. If this doesn't shock you at least somewhat, you've been living here too long. This time it was near Seattle, where another troubled young man got his hands on a gun in a society where we don't make it much of a challenge for children.

As the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence made clear in a recent report called "The Truth About Kids and Guns," he
and the one young woman he killed would have only made up two of the
2,703 child and teen firearm deaths in America in 2011. That is seven
children and teens killed by gunfire each and every day in America. It's
a scandal.